Wednesday, April 23, 2008

We’ve got all these little pieces of Jack Shephard’s life—successful spinal surgeon, Daddy issues, failed marriage, compulsive urge to fix things, plane crash, Oxycodone addiction, aversion to presh babies—but we’re still waiting for answers on how he gets from A to B to C. It’s kind of driving me crazy.

With every new spoilery tidbit, Mae and I have been calling each other in a near-panic, desperate to just get on the line with each other and have a spec-fest. Yesterday, I frightened an innocent passerby on the street. Once I assured the man that I was shouting at my phone and not at him, Mae and I got down to business.

In the process of discussing the few new things that have come up in the last few days, including a new piece from TVGuide.com, I came up with what I think is a pretty good prediction.

Here’s what I’m basing it on:

1. That there TV Guide article, specifically this quote: “Jack's flash-forward revolves around Kate. We're sworn to secrecy but will let slip that fans of Jate are in for a long-awaited, happy turn of events.”

2. A recent spoiler telling us that the finale includes scenes from Christian Shephard’s post-rescue funeral.

3. Another recent rumor telling us that there’s a letter Christian Shephard wrote—read in a flash-forward—to both of his children.

4. TV Guide saying we’re in for Christian Shephard reaching out to “both of his children,” and Hurley relaying a “chilling” message from Charlie to Jack.

5. What we know already—that in the future, Jack likes Oxycodone more than he likes spending time with Aaron.

So here’s what I foresee. Though I have been hoping for a while that Jack and Claire would figure out their connection pre-rescue—thus giving them a chance for sibling love and the opportunity for Claire to send Aaron back to LA with his uncle, not just Jack and Kate—I’m starting to think that their relationship won’t be revealed to Jack until this letter is revealed.

Which comes as quite a shock to Jack, because for the last however many weeks or months, he’s been raising Aaron with Kate like he’s just some kid who he’s pretending is his son. (More on this spec in Mae’s upcoming blog about her broad interpretation of the title “Something Nice Back Home.”)

So all he knows is that his dad had an illegitimate blond Australian daughter named Claire. And this is enough to make Jack think...could it be possible? Surely, being one of the only people on the island aware of some of the freaky passenger connections—knowing, of course, of his own history with Desmond and of the evening Sawyer and Christian Shephard spent together—he shouldn't be completely closed off to the idea.

So there’s a spark.

And then Hurley comes over and tells him he’s had a vision about Charlie. Who’s got issues with Jack raising Aaron like he’s his own—he doesn’t care if he is his uncle, you just don’t do that.

I love, by the way, the possibility of not only a Dominic Monaghan return but also of striking a pretty important parallel between Charlie and Jack—drug addicts taking on the role of Aaron’s dad.

And suddenly, Jack realizes a couple of pretty critical things. Like that there is something mystical about the island, something that does in fact draw people together—people like Jack and Claire and Jack and Kate. And it didn’t want them to leave, but, y’all, Jack’s a resourceful guy. He’s a man of science. And—imagined or not—he starts to feel the pull to go back.

He also realizes that he didn’t just leave his friend, the cute pregnant girl, behind. He left his sister behind. I realized that the Jack/Claire revelation is way more awesome if it happens to Jack off-island than on-island. Especially because do we really think Jack Shephard would take his sister’s baby and then leave her on the island? Yeah, he wouldn’t. It’s much better this way.

So, yeah, I’d say that’s enough for him to tell Kate he’s done playing house. He loves her and wants to be with her and have a family with her—but a real family, not a fake family full of lies. He’s got to get back to the island, to Claire. Jack wants to reunite the Shephard Family. (PS Jaters, we always knew Kate would end up raising a little Shephard kid, now, didn’t we?) He feels guilty about how things have turned out and he’s wracked with worry about what’s happening on the island.

And he starts doing drugs. And he starts growing a beard. And Kate’s conflicted, y’all, because she knows she shouldn’t really have Aaron, but he’s so cute and he calls her Mommy. Mae and I are really worried for Aaron, because if he goes back to the island and Mama Claire and he’s like three years old...he has a mom already, and her name is Kate. It’ll be like the Baby Jessica story, which was made into an awesome made-for-TV movie like fifteen years ago, where the babydaddy never signed off on the adoption, so Baby Jessica lived with this adoptive family for three years before the biological parents decided they wanted her back. And it’s like...don’t tell me that when you’re three you don’t know who your mom is.

I don’t want Aaron to end up like Baby Jessica, and I don’t want Kate to end up like Roberta "Robby" DeBoer, who cried when she had to give her daughter back to these kind of trailer trashy people.

Mae’s got more about “Something Nice Back Home” and what that might mean for Jack, Kate, and Aaron. Suffice it to say, I think she and I both can pretty much picture Jack having a crap day at the office and coming home to Kate holding Aaron, bouncing him around. He coos his hellos to the both of them, kisses both of them (in two very different ways), and the Skaters make pissed-off comments about Taco Night.

No response to “Lost: Baby Swap '08 Is Officially a Head-Scratcher”

Interested in Joining?

We write about what we love--which means sometimes good shows get neglected because they're just not our thing. What do you watch that we're not covering? Are you interested in bringing the voice of that fandom to Chaos in General? Leave a comment and we'll talk!